Category Archives: Real Life

You spend a year at home on Maternity/ Paternity leave and then maybe, just maybe, you choose to stay home with the kids.

Finances are tight with one income, but you learn to make to money stretch and you’re OK with that.

Five or more years down the road, when you’re done having babies and they’re now in school full-time, you may be ready to get back into the work force. Perhaps you’re still at home with a little one and could take this opportunity to enroll in a distance program that will allow you to upgrade your skills or start a new career, but at the same time be at home with the kidlets.

But the working world has changed since you last worked and now your skills are probably outdated. You’ll need to upgrade your skills and chances are, you’ll be needing to take a course or more. Maybe you want to completely change your direction and taking a course or program is a definite must.

But, again…finances are tight because you are a single income household and monies brought in go to the most important things like bills, food, school stuff, extra-curricular activities for the kids, gifts for the plethora of birthday parties that your kids get invited to and the never ending clothes shopping for your growing spawn. Furthering your education just seems to take a back seat to all of these things. What about before and afterschool care for your kids, so you can attend school full-time?

How do you make it work?

Is there financial aid available or even better…bursaries or scholarships that can be obtained?

What about childcare subsidies? Hubby makes too much for us to qualify, but we just can’t fathom $450/month per kid!

Where do you start looking? The banks, the institution in which your desired programs are being offered?

These are things to consider when you’re planning on getting back into the workforce or going back to school.

I am a full-time Stay-At-Home-Mom…I want to take this opportunity to learn more.

Our kids are in school now. Come September, it’ll be full-time for both.

I know what I want to do. We just need to sort out the details of before and after school care and how to pay for it!

Have you gone back to school after being out of the workforce for an extended period of time? How did you manage financially?

Last night we were coming home late and it was getting too late to cook something for dinner from scratch, so I pulled into the local super market parking lot.

My daughter and I hopped out of the van and walked around to the other side to let the wee dude out.

I had noticed an older woman across from us getting into her car and another guy riding a shopping cart to his.

All of a sudden I hear the guy start laughing out loud and I look up to see what was so funny.

The woman that had gotten into her car and now had pulled along side our van. She wound down her window and started talking to me. I couldn’t quite hear her, so I leaned towards her passenger window and asked her to repeat herself.

“Your sweet little daughter just gave me the middle finger!”

SAY WHAT NOW!?

I have NEVER given ANYONE the middle finger (in front of my kids), so as to where she picked that up, completely baffles me!

I turned around and my daughter apologized to me, but I had her immediately apologize to the lady. I was so embarrassed!

She wouldn’t tell me why she did it and stuck to me like glue while we grabbed our groceries.

Eventually, on the way home, she confessed and said that the lady made a mean face at her. Perhaps she did…she did look pretty scowly. An example of BRF (bitchy resting face).

Long long ago, when I was in my late teens, early 20’s…I actually owned bra and panty sets.

They were so pretty. They matched, or at least were co-ordinated.

I shopped at La Senza. Canada’s version of Victoria Secret, where you could get two bras for $40 and five pairs of panties for $20. I was also, still working full-time and childless, so OF COURSE I had nice underbits!

Flash forward 20{ahem} years later, and I have given birth to two kids, hung up donated all of my working duds, and long gone are the days of fancy panties and push-up bras. I should have kept those push-up bras though because my ladies have headed so far south that a push-up bra would definitely come in handy.

My “tighty whitey/ granny panties” are now the staple of my daily attire.

The unfortunate sneezes, line-ups for our one bathroom, exercises that I do regularly to get my body back from having kids and the new version of Aunt Flo that my body produces, have totally ruined the idea of wearing gorgeous lingerie for me. The special laundering required for lingerie does not work with my normal laundry schedule. The most I am capable of in my hectic schedule is separating the lights from the darks before tossing them in the washing machine.

I do see a light at the end of the tunnel though.

When the kids are both in school full-time, I will more me time allowing my Mr. Hyde FrankenMom persona to stay home while I work on a more publicly accepted version of myself.

I’m excited…just need to find some fashion sense and a new hairdresser 😜

As a kid, I was the tallest girl in my class. The boys liked the other girls because they were shorter.

I’ve never been bothered by my height though. My first serious boyfriend was three inches shorter than me and the guy I now call my husband, is also three inches shorter than me.

See, no biggy.

The problem I have though is…I have HUGE feet!

I peaked at a size 10 in my young adult years. No problem though because I still found shoes in my size when I went shopping. Now, after having two kids, my feet have grown a whole size bigger and I’m now stomping around in size 11’s!

Stores don’t really carry shoes in this size!

I’m now having to locate warehouse size shoe stores or shop online to find footwear that fits me.

The funny thing is though…I have several girlfriends who are in the same boat as me! We all have gargantuan feet and nowhere to buy shoes!

Nowadays, women are taller and have bigger feet. Perhaps the shoe stores should increase their size range to accommodate us.

All I’m asking for is runners, sandals and rain boots for my feeties that I can get at the regular shoe stores! Is that too much to ask?

I never realized how much my abilities have been hindered since having to wear a walking cast.

First off…my floors are so gross because of having to wear my boot both indoors and outdoors. I tried wearing a shower cap over my boot when I was at home, but it kept ripping or I’d forget to remove it when I went out making it just as dirty as the bottom if my boot!

My fitness regime has all but halted and it’s driving me mad! No running…no aerobics…no Aquafit…no hiking and no biking! My “getting fit” physique has gone in reverse and my muscle tone has disappeared, my thighs and hips have re-inflated, but the silver lining is…I have a super awesome tan line from my boot that will garner some attention, I’m sure.

Good news…tomorrow I go in to get my leg checked on, so hopefully the boot will be retired and I’ll get to wear matching footwear!